Hollywood Strikes
Striking writers walk outside the gates of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023. Negotiations between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios have resumed and will continue Thursday, the latest attempt to bring an end to pickets that have brought film and television productions to a halt.
Demonstrators hold signs during a rally outside the Paramount Pictures Studio in Los Angeles, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023.
Writers Brent Mote, left, and Mark McCorckle, right, picket outside the gates of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023.
Demonstrators picket outside the Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Picketers walk around the gates of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023.
ANDREW DALTON and LINLEY SANDERS
September 22, 2023
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Public support for striking Hollywood actors and writers is broad, but not necessarily deep enough for most people to change their viewing habits, a new poll finds.
A majority (55%) of U.S. adults sympathize with the writers and actors in the months-long dispute than with the studios they're striking against (3%), the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows.
Half of Americans (50%) approve of writers and actors striking, while 40% are neutral on the topic, and 9% disapprove.
The more people said they had heard about the strike, the more likely they were to favor it. About six in 10 Americans have heard “a lot” or “some” about the labor strikes of writers and actors against Hollywood studios. People who have heard “a lot” or “some” about the strike are more likely than those who have heard less to approve (63% vs. 29%).
“I’m a big supporter of labor,” said one respondent, James Denton of Louisville, Kentucky, who said he strongly approves of the strikes and has followed them closely. “I’m a union member myself, my father was the president of a union, I believe in unions, they’re well worth the money.”
About a quarter (24%) of U.S. adults do not sympathize with either the writers and actors or the studios, and 18% are split between the sides.
Overall sympathy toward the writers and actors runs much more strongly among Democrats (70%), than Independents (47%) and Republicans (39%). Republicans (35%) are more likely than Democrats (15%) to say they sympathize with neither side.
When the questions move beyond approval toward potential actions favoring the strike, the support gets considerably softer.
One-third would consider boycotting TV shows, while even more (41%) would not. Slightly fewer (27%) said they would consider canceling streaming services, while 44% said they would not. Three in 10 Americans also said they would consider boycotting movie theaters, while 34% would not. The unions have yet to ask for any of these moves from consumers, though have said they might if the standoffs last long enough.
Denton, 77, said he would not consider such moves, but added that it wouldn't matter much.
“I don’t watch anything anyway,” he said. “I don’t go to movies anymore.”
The poll was conducted September 7-11, as the Hollywood protests over pay and work protections stretched into their fifth month for writers and third month for actors. The Writers Guild of America has restarted negotiations with the alliance of studios and streaming services they're striking against. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists are waiting in the wings.
While actors are usually the ones getting public adulation, many more think writers deserve a pay bump than they do actors.
A majority of Americans (56%) say it would be a good thing for screenwriters to be paid more, but only 38% say the same about actors’ compensation. Americans under 45 are more likely than older adults to call higher wages for actors a good thing (44% vs. 32%), but they are similarly likely to see higher pay for screenwriters favorably.
Along with compensation and job security, an issue at the center of both strikes is the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, in the creation of entertainment, and who will control it.
The poll showed that young people may actually be even more wary of the emerging technology than older adults. Americans under 45 years old are more likely than those 45 and older to say it would be good for studios to be prevented from replacing human writers with artificial intelligence (55% vs. 42%).
Overall, about half of U.S. adults (48%) say it would be a good thing if studios were prevented from replacing writers with AI. Alternatively, only 10% say it would be good for studios to use AI to help write movies and TV shows. Half (52%) say it would be a bad thing for studios to use AI in this way.
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The poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Sept. 7-11, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
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Sanders reported from Washington, D.C.
Andy Sullivan
Thu, September 21, 2023
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans broadly back striking workers in the auto industry and Hollywood, according to a two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Wednesday that found significant support among both Democrats and Republicans.
The poll found that 58% of Americans support the first-ever simultaneous strike by the United Auto Workers union against Ford Motor, General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis to win better pay and benefits, while 32% oppose the action and 10% were unsure.
Similarly, 60% of Americans support the dual strikes by screenwriters and actors to win better pay and protections in the entertainment industry, while 27% oppose it and 13% were unsure.
The poll found especially strong support among Democrats, who have traditionally allied with labor unions. Some 72% of self-identified Democrats said they backed the auto workers strike and 79% said they supported the Hollywood strike.
A large number of Republicans also said they backed the striking workers, even though their party has traditionally advanced pro-business policies and taken a skeptical view of the liberal views espoused by many Hollywood celebrities.
The poll found that 48% of Republicans backed the auto workers strike, while 47% opposed it. Similarly, 46% said they supported the Hollywood strikes and 46% said they did not.
That divide has been reflected in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Former President Donald Trump, who leads the field by a wide margin, plans to skip the next candidates' debate on Sept. 27 and instead give a speech to auto workers and other blue-collar union members.
Other candidates like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott have said the auto workers are asking for too much.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who has sided with the UAW and called on auto companies to concede more to striking workers, has made union outreach a central part of his 2024 reelection bid. He won 57% of union households in the 2020 election, compared with 40% for Trump, according to Edison Research.
The poll comes as the United States has seen an uptick in union activism. Through August -- before the UAW strike -- 310,000 U.S. workers were involved in work stoppages, putting 2023 on track to become the busiest year for strikes since 2019.
The poll also found broad support for the labor movement in general, even though private-sector union membership remains at historical lows in the United States.
Some 61% of respondents said labor unions have improved the quality of life for all Americans, while only 35% said labor unions were no longer necessary.
Two-thirds said pay for CEOs and workers should go up equally -- a central talking point of the UAW strike.
The online poll of 1,005 U.S. adults was conducted between Sept. 19 and Sept. 20. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, and 6 percentage points for Democratic and Republican responses.
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
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